1. No matter how pro-American Georgia might be, it is not going to wake up tomorrow and it find it has moved hemispheres. It's location is next to Russia and somehow it must work out some security arrangement with Russia, not against it.
2. No matter how pro-Georgia US leaders might pay lip service to, the US Cavalry is NOT coming to the rescue. We might arm and train, but we are not going to war with Russia "to protect Georgia". We are simply using it as an excuse to provoke Russia and scare Europe. We are exploiting the situation, not helping it.
3.US leaders don't really give a damn about Georgia, except as a pawn to needle Russia with. They really don't care if Russia nukes Georgia -- as a matter of fact, they hope it does to give them some excuse to get NATO to neutralize Russia so that they can eliminate Russian oil as competition. Meanwhile, the Orthodox East will be wiped out completely.
4. This is not about "Georgian freedom", this is about oil -- which is why the Bush Administration can confusingly support Kosovo independence in one breath and deny Abkhazian/S. Ossetian independence in the next breath. Georgia has been thrown under a truck to justify fighting over Caspian oil.
5. S. Ossetia and Abkhazia are not "essential" to Georgia. They have been de-facto independent since the break-up of the Soviet Union. And they were relatively peaceful until Shakaashvili came to power and we started using Georgia as a threat to Russia. I am sorry but those two small provinces are not worth fighting a World War over -- and make no mistake, Russia is not going to back down if it's oil supply is threatened because the entire Russian economy is based on supplying oil to Europe. If that oil supply collapses, Russia won't care who it takes with it and we will be dealing with a World War. However much I might feel for the Georgian people, I am not willing to die for them or for some Western oil companies' profits!